1. Field
The following description relates to a multi-view three-dimensional (3D) image display apparatus and method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, demands for three-dimensional (3D) image displays that provide stereoscopic images have significantly increased in various fields such as games, advertisements, medical imaging, education, and military applications. Furthermore, with increasing popularity of high-resolution TVs, 3D TVs that allow viewers to see 3D images are gradually becoming more widely used in commercial applications. To cope with this trend, various 3D image display techniques have been proposed. Commercially used 3D image displays employ binocular parallax between two eyes to provide left and right eye images to a viewer's left and right eyes, respectively, so that the viewer may perceive depth. 3D image displays are classified into eyeglass-type 3D image displays, which use a special type of glasses, and non-eyeglass-type 3D image displays, which do not require glasses.
However, a 3D image display providing only two views, such as left-eye and right-eye images, may be limited in providing a natural sense of depth if a change in viewpoint due to a viewer's movement is not reflected. Thus, multi-view 3D image displays capable of providing multiple views, and, for example, 3D images having different viewpoints, to multiple viewing zones have been proposed in order to provide natural motion parallax.
However, crosstalk may occur between different viewing zones and create a non-stereoscopic or inverse stereoscopic region between the viewing zones. Furthermore, increasing the number of views may achieve natural motion parallax but degrade a resolution of each view. For example, a 3D image display using a projection optical system may require the inclusion of an increasing number of projection optical systems in order to increase the number of views. The increased number of projection optical systems may cause the overall system to become bulky. Because a multi-view 3D image display may provide only binocular parallax, a 3D image may not be able to be viewed with one eye.